Site Mobile Navigation

Reviving Two Characters by Tearing Them Apart

WHEN beloved pairings split, fans may grow distraught, at the prospect of Simon without Garfunkel, Lennon without McCartney, or Martin without Lewis.

Now Mike and Ike, the brand of chewy fruit-flavored candies, is announcing its pair is separating, and hoping the development captures the interest of younger consumers.

Packaging that began appearing in stores recently has logos with either “Ike” or “Mike” scribbled out, as if by a felt-tip marker.

On the back of packages with Mike’s name crossed out, a handwritten message from Ike faults Mike for “spending way too much time on his music.” Packages with Ike’s name crossed out have a message from Mike faulting Ike for “spending way too much time on his graffiti art.”

The packages direct consumers to the brand’s Facebook page, where videos document the split. One video features reactions from celebrities including the N.B.A. player Lamar Odom (“When I heard the news, I was devastated”); Greyson Chance, a 14-year-old pop singer (“I think Mike and Ike are going to be O.K.”); and Eden Sher, a 20-year-old star on the sitcom “The Middle” (“I’m totally Team Ike”).

Billboards will begin appearing in July, with what appears to be a sign painter on a ladder, but is actually part of the billboard itself, painting over either “Mike” or “Ike.”

Unlike the ice cream entrepreneurs Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Mike and Ike do not exist. Even the candy’s parent company, Just Born, cannot pinpoint the origin of the name for the brand, which was introduced 72 years ago; the company speculates that the name came from a vaudeville act, a song popular in the 1930s or an internal naming contest.

The campaign, which will also include television advertising starting in June and an animated billboard in Times Square in July, will cost an estimated $15 million. That is a sharp increase for the brand, which spent $125,000 on advertising in 2011, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP.

The campaign, by the Elevator Group, a marketing and advertising agency based in Scituate, Mass., is primarily aimed at consumers aged 13 to 17.

“We think in the next couple of years we can easily double this business,” said Matthew Pye, vice president for brand development and corporate services at Just Born.

Mike and Ike had $31.1 million in revenue for the 52 weeks ending Feb. 19, a 2.2 percent increase over the previous year, according to SymphonyIRI Group, whose data does not include Walmart. Mike and Ike ranks seventh in what SymphonyIRI calls the nonchocolate chewy candy category, which is led by Starburst, followed by Skittles and Sour Patch Kids.

Sam Born, a Russian immigrant, opened a candy store in Brooklyn in 1917, and to promote the fact that his candy was made fresh daily, he stuck a sign in his window that played on his name: Just Born.

Photo

A new campaign for Mike and Ike, the brand of chewy fruit-flavored candies, has invented a dispute between the fictional characters. Billboards and packages will feature one of the names crossed out.

He adopted the name for the candy manufacturing company he started in 1923, which in 1932 moved to Bethlehem, Pa. Today, the company’s brands also include marshmallow candy Peeps and Hot Tamales, a cinnamon candy.

Mike and Ike was introduced in 1940, and for its first two decades there was no physical representation of the two. In the 1960s and 1970s two mustachioed men appeared on the boxes, one wearing a top hat and the other a bowler.

The new campaign, in other words, is introducing Mike and Ike by saying they are parting ways. And while celebrities and others in commercials and online videos refer to seeing either Ike or Mike recently, neither will appear. The voices of the characters will be presented only in writing, which along with the messages on the back of packages includes posts on Facebook and on a Tumblr blog.

A conventional advertising campaign that promoted the candy as toothsome would hold little sway over the younger consumers at whom the effort is directed, said Mark Richardson, president of the Elevator Group.

“Teenagers who are the primary target are not receptive to advertising that would be a direct sell about the attributes of Mike and Ike candy,” he said. “They see it coming, and they don’t want to hear us talking about it.”

Many teenagers do, however, like to follow developments of friendships and romances on Facebook, Mr. Richardson added.

“What social media allows us to do, and which traditional media now reinforces, is to build and enhance the story over time and allow consumers to really get to know Mike and Ike,” he said.

The campaign will last for a year, when the answer to whether Mike and Ike reconcile will be revealed.

Brenda Fiala, vice president for strategy in the United States for Blast Radius, a digital agency that is part of the Wunderman unit of WPP, lauded the choice never to show the characters.

“In this day and age, everything is so obvious, it’s in front of you, you can see it,” she said. “This is at the opposite end of the spectrum because they’re creating intrigue by not showing the characters.”

The character Mike wrote on Tumblr on Tuesday: “So over it. Instead of all this hassle, now I’m just gonna jam.” Later, he adds, “I can’t wait to share with you all the stuff I have in mind — sick music festivals, dope new songs, a music video.”

Whether that sounds to consumers like a hip youngster, or a marketer in a swivel chair impersonating one, will determine the success of the campaign.

“The risk is that it may come off as inauthentic, as this fight is being manufactured by marketers,” Ms. Fiala said of the campaign. “As for whether it’s a brand builder, I think the jury will be out.”

A version of this article appears in print on April 12, 2012, on page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Reviving 2 Characters By Tearing Them Apart. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe